Matt in SD

This is old news for me, but since I just joined I figured I'd share.

A couple of years ago my Ensete 'maurelli' flowered. It had been in the ground about 3 1/2 years from a small plant and was HUGE. The trunk base was about 3 feet in diameter and the total height was close to 20 feet.

Here it is in December 2003, about 6 months after planting (it was a 1 or 2g plant when planted, not more than 2 feet tall). This in the first round of plants that I planted in my garden and was really at the start of the tropical obsession.


Here's my last photo of it alive, from November 20th 2006. You can see the obsession had progressed a bit by the general change in scenery.

Matt in SD

And here is what I woke up to on December 20th 2006



Note: this was a bad time for my "lawn"...we had a new dog. Got it under control now. But man it was ugly.

Matt in SD

And after a surprisingly short time with a pruning saw. The pile is just part of the leaves, the trunk was piled in sections somewhere else:


And the flower

Matt in SD

It was really amazing that there were no fatalities from this. There were 2 broken leaves on the Pritchardia (fan palm in the foreground) and that was it. If you look close in the "after cleanup" photo you can see a big green and white bromeliad (a very unique Vriesea hybrid), just to the right of the Pritchardia. Then go look at the photo with the fallen ensete. Pretty crazy it wasn't damaged. There was a bird of paradise log on the ground next to the ensete which it was resting on and this held it high enough off the ground that it did not smash the plants that were on the ground right under the trunk. If it had fallen any other direction, or even a foot left or right, it could have been pretty bad.

So...when you see your ensete flowering, either tie/stake it up, or take it out, before mother nature takes it out for you. I have read that it is comon for them to fall/blow over very quickly after the flower emerges.

Matt

MediaHound

Wow Matt, good advice and sorry for your loss.

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CookieCows

Wow what a shock to walk out to. That's really sad! Amazing nothing else was broken. You sure have alot of compost now!

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mskitty38583

oh my goodness. i think i would have rolled around on the ground crying like a little baby to see my beauriful nana in pieces. did you replant another one or did you plant a new kind? so sorry to hear and see that.btw your yards beautiful.

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Dean W.

What a loss. It was so huge too. By the way your garden does look beautiful.

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Tropicallvr

That's too bad, and not even enough time to set seed.
I've seen them do that when not in bloom too, did you have a high wind? It might just have gotten too top heavy, because I've seen some smaller ones in full bloom that didn't topple.
At least no other plants got smushed.

island cassie

Matt - what a terrible thing!! Thanks for the warning as I would never have expected such a beautiful healthy plant to keel over like that - and the flower was sooo gorgeous.

Cassie

Matt in SD

Thanks for the sympathy, but really it was flowering so I knew it's days were numbered. I was actually concerned about it blowing/falling over and was going to cut it down within a few weeks if it had not fallen.

There was some wind that brought it down, but by most peoples standards it was not high winds...not more than 15-20 miles per hour, but it was a long time ago, I don't remember exactly. I was pretty shocked when I went out in the morning though!

Matt